Desolate Devouring Art

Mou Shan's Great Golden Immortal Realm aura burst outward, driving a powerful wave along the street. Trees on both sides rustled violently as it passed.

Vandore lifted a hand and gently swept the pressure away. Mou Shan's pupils tightened. The old elf before him was a formidable expert.

"Senior, I don't believe we've met. Could there have been some misunderstanding?" Mou Shan asked, directing his full attention toward Vandore. Liu Wuxie scarcely warranted consideration. A Profound Immortal possessed no greater standing than an ordinary Mou Clan disciple.

"There's no misunderstanding. You're the ones we came for," Vandore replied, suddenly pointing toward the estate.

Deep in secluded cultivation, the Face-Seer Ghost King jolted awake. He had already brushed the threshold of the Immortal Lord Realm, but that abrupt eruption of aura had broken his concentration.

"Who dares disturb me?" the Face-Seer Ghost King roared, bursting furiously from his cultivation chamber. He had supported the Mou Clan precisely because they supplied the materials he needed for his cultivation.

A black figure appeared before the estate's gates. The Face-Seer Ghost King studied Vandore and Liu Wuxie with a frown. Neither face stirred any recognition.

"Grand Elder, what brought you out of seclusion?" Mou Shan asked, unaware that Vandore's intervention had compelled him to emerge.

The few Mou Clan elders behind Mou Shan immediately bowed, extending every courtesy to the Face-Seer Ghost King.

"You came looking for me?" the Face-Seer Ghost King asked, surveying both visitors before his brow furrowed. Liu Wuxie's Profound Immortal Realm cultivation lay plainly before him. Vandore's, however, remained impossible to discern.

"Did you kill Yu Di?" Liu Wuxie demanded.

Mou Shan and the others narrowed their eyes. That name carried an ominous implication. For years, they had pursued the Yu Clan's remnants, only to watch them evade every attempt at extermination.

"I've killed more people than I can count. Who is this Yu Di?" the Face-Seer Ghost King asked. He genuinely could not recall the man among his innumerable victims. His Ghost Devouring Art consumed the yin energy within other people's bodies. Even several Mou Clan disciples had withered into corpses simply by passing his cultivation chamber.

"Are you from the Yu Clan?" Mou Shan demanded. Behind him, several Golden Immortal Realm elders unsheathed their weapons and prepared to fight.

"Kill the Face-Seer Ghost King. Cripple the others' cultivation," Liu Wuxie instructed Vandore, speaking as casually as though settling a routine matter.

An expert at the Immortal King Realm would earn recognition as a powerhouse even in the Celestial Weave Domain. Here, in this remote region, the Face-Seer Ghost King possessed enough strength to rule as an overlord.

Vandore released his Immortal Venerable Realm aura. His power closed over the entire Mou Clan and sealed every escape route.

"Attack him!" Mou Shan roared, thrusting his sword toward Liu Wuxie.

Vandore stood beyond their ability to challenge. Their only hope lay in taking Liu Wuxie hostage and forcing the old elf to withdraw.

"Doom Tempest!" Vandore thundered as boundless darkness poured from his body.

Mou Shan and the elders froze, losing control over their bodies. Vandore's Doom Tempest surpassed Liu Wuxie's by an entire order of magnitude. Only now did the technique reveal its true might.

Cultivators emerged along the street, but none ventured closer. They kept their distance and watched.

"Seven Spectral Demon Swords!" the Face-Seer Ghost King called. At last, he struck, carving a gap with his sword and attempting to escape through it.

Having taken action himself, Vandore would hardly permit his target to flee. An Immortal Venerable stood far above an Immortal King, already occupying the pinnacle of the Celestial Realm.

An invisible palm grabbed the Face-Seer Ghost King's right foot and dragged him back. His dignity as an Immortal King offered no protection. Before Vandore, he could not resist at all.

"Spare me, Senior!" the Face-Seer Ghost King pleaded, dropping to his knees and kowtowing before Vandore.

"Cripple his cultivation instead. I have another use for him," Liu Wuxie said. Refining someone at the Immortal King Realm would give him a strong chance of reaching the third-level Profound Immortal Realm.

Still holding the Face-Seer Ghost King captive, Vandore extended one finger and bound him, sealing his cultivation inside his body.

"Get in!" Liu Wuxie commanded. The Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron appeared and swallowed the Face-Seer Ghost King.

Vandore showed no such restraint toward Mou Shan and the others, crippling their cultivation directly.

The battle ended in just two breaths. Before the Doom Tempest dissipated, Liu Wuxie and Vandore had already left, as though neither had ever set foot there.

Without the Face-Seer Ghost King, and with Mou Shan and the others crippled, the Mou Clan would soon become prey for the surrounding forces. Liu Wuxie needed to take no further action.

Wrapping Liu Wuxie in magical force, Vandore carried him tens of thousands of miles before descending. They were now closer to the Celestial Weave Domain.

Amid the mountains, a screen of light appeared before Vandore, revealing the image of an elf.

"Ancestor, the Leopard King has brought the Lion King Clan to attack our Elven Race again!"

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The other tribes had likely discovered Vandore's extended absence and chosen their moment to strike.

"Brother Liu..." Vandore faltered, anxiety darkening his face. Thousands of years of effort had gone into establishing the Elven Race in the Celestial Realm. He could not watch it fall.

"Go. I'm sure we'll see each other again," Liu Wuxie replied, patting his shoulder reassuringly. Once inside the Celestial Weave Domain, he would keep a low profile.

"Take this Magical Leaf. It will save your life when you need it most," Vandore said, retrieving a leaf-shaped item from his clothes. Powerful magical force filled it, enough to withstand a strike from an Immortal King at a critical moment.

"Then I'll gladly accept it," Liu Wuxie replied, taking the gift. He could never have too many treasures, especially with the dangers of the Celestial Weave Domain ahead. Another trump card meant another chance to survive.

Throughout their journey, Vandore had repeatedly invited him to the Cloud Weave Mountain Range. Each time, Liu Wuxie had refused. Its resources simply could not rival those available in the Celestial Weave Domain.

To recover his cultivation as an Immortal Emperor, the Celestial Weave Domain remained the wiser choice.

Vandore shook his head helplessly. He knew that Liu Wuxie's determination to avenge himself left no other path open.

"Look after yourself. Don't rush into revenge unless you have no alternative. Preserve your strength and plan carefully," Vandore urged. That was all he could offer. Vengeance required patience. Without sufficient cultivation, pursuing it recklessly would only lead to death.

"You should leave," Liu Wuxie said, turning to wave him off. The Elven Race was already under attack, and every delay worsened its danger.

A sigh escaped Vandore. He knew how headstrong Liu Wuxie was, and nothing could change his decision.

He turned into a streak of light and vanished over the horizon. Only when Vandore had gone did Liu Wuxie turn back, moisture glistening in his eyes.

"Thank you, old friend. This would have been far more difficult without you," Liu Wuxie murmured, bowing toward Vandore.

Although the Asura Blade fragment could have allowed him to escape, using it would have subjected him to ceaseless pursuit. With his current cultivation, even an Immortal King could crush him effortlessly, let alone an Immortal Regnant.

......

Several unwelcome visitors descended upon the Divine Steed Manor. Everyone possessed formidable cultivation, and even the weakest had reached the Immortal Regnant Realm.

Inside the main hall, representatives of the Divine Will Gate, the Hundred Blossom Manor, and the other forces still lingered, unable to establish whether the Divine Steed Tournament had occurred. Yet the damaged divine steeds in their interspatial rings proved that it had. Who, then, had won the Asura Blade fragment?

None of them could answer.

"Seniors, we know nothing about the Immortal Emperor's will you're asking about," the manor lord pleaded, almost sinking to his knees.

No one had opposed the newcomers' entry. Their auras alone had destroyed the two divine steeds guarding the gates. Now, five powerhouses at the pinnacle of the Immortal Regnant Realm occupied the seats at the head of the hall. Pressure rolled from them in waves, threatening to collapse the Divine Steed Manor around them. Such was the power of Immortal Regnants.

Beneath that crushing force, elders from the Divine Will Gate, the Nanmen Clan, and the other factions lay prostrate, trembling in fear.

"Some part of their memories is missing. Someone forcibly erased it," the Immortal Regnant seated in the center reported. His divine sense had swept through every soul sea in the hall, examining their recollections.

"Erasing the memories of tens of thousands would require someone at least at the Immortal Venerable Realm. Has he already recovered to that level?" an Immortal Regnant on the right asked, furrowing his brow. The possibility was deeply troubling.

"He wasn't responsible. Traces of magical force remain in the air. I suspect the Elven Race's involvement," the Immortal Regnant on the left observed. He had detected the remnants of Vandore's magic.

"Can their soul seas be restored?" the youngest Immortal Regnant asked from the far-right seat. Doing so would uncover what had taken place.

"Attempting it might cause their memories to collapse. Our only option is to raise their cultivation to the Immortal Venerable Realm and let them recover the memories themselves," the central Immortal Regnant replied with a shake of his head.

Not even an Immortal Emperor could retrieve those memories without reversing time and space. The Great Samsara Art had disappeared long ago, however, and no one had mastered it.

"If that's the only option, we can take a few of them back and supply them with resources. Bringing one to the Immortal Venerable Realm shouldn't take too long," the Immortal Regnant on the right proposed after considering the matter.

"That seems doable," the Immortal Regnant on the left agreed, nodding.

"We should consult Immortal Emperor Xiao first," the Immortal Regnant in the center said. He took out a Communication Talisman refined by an Immortal Emperor, which could contact someone tens of millions of miles away.

"Return with three of them," an indifferent voice instructed through the Communication Talisman, then fell silent.

"Those three will come with us," the Immortal Regnant ordered, pointing toward the Divine Steed Manor Lord, the Hundred Blossom Manor's elder, and Nanmen Qing.

As the tournament's host, the manor lord was certain to know many details. The Hundred Blossom Manor's elder was chosen because she was a woman. Nanmen Qing's severed fingers, meanwhile, marked him as a crucial witness to the Immortal Emperor's will.